In March 1838, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways started working on a railway line from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau. This line was called Badische Hauptbahn or Rheintalbahn. A Swiss railway commission desired a continuation of the line into Basel and contacted the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1842. In January 1851, the Rheintalbahn line reached the village of Haltingen, close to the Swiss border. Since the two governments had not agreed about how to build the station in Basel yet, the passengers were transported across the border with hackney carriages. Finally, on July 27, 1852, a treaty became effective between the government of Baden and the Swiss Confederation. This treaty is still effective today. The start of construction was further delayed, however, by the Swiss insisting on a terminal station and the Badische Staatseisenbahnen insisting on a through station in favour of the planned extension of the line towards Waldshut. The first Baden Railway station of Basel was built as a through station at nowaday's Messeplatz square about 800 meters west of today's one. The line from Haltingen to Basel was opened on February 19, 1855 with a temporary wooden station building. A further line to Konstanz in Baden was connected to the southern end of the station in 1856, and by April 10, 1859 Switzerland and Baden had finally agreed to build a permanent station, of which the construction started in May. The street entrances of the station building opened to nowaday's Riehenring street. In 1875, the communication railroad to Basel Swiss station was opened, leaving the Baden station together with the railway to Konstanz. The increase of railway traffic in the beginning of 20th century afforded larger facilities. To get space for the urban development of Kleinbasel, the government of Basel insisted on a new station on a new site. It was chosen straight north northwest of the railway bridge across the Rhine. The station was moved to its current location between 1906 and 1913.
Special situation
The Badischer Bahnhof is located on Swiss territory, but due to the 1852 treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the state of Baden, the largest part of it is treated as an inner-German station and is operated by the Deutsche Bahn. The shops in the station hall, however, are located in Switzerland, and the Swiss franc is used as the official currency there. The customs controls are located in a tunnel between the platforms and the station hall; international trains which continue to Basel SBB usually have on-board border controls. Passport controls were abolished when Switzerland joined the Schengen Area in 2008.
